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Peeve of the Week: Denial - Circuit City at it Again
October 9, 2008

I find it amazing.  Circuit City still refuses to admit that last year’s massive staff cuts are playing a role in their ongoing declining performance.  In a statement released last month, they blamed less traffic, environmental influence, the competition and poor brand positioning, which to some extent I’m sure are all valid.  But they fail to acknowledge that their decision to trade in higher paid/higher quality workers for cheaper labor has had a negative impact on their sales and customers’ experience. Meanwhile, they are quick to point out that the very thing they need to improve is their customers’ experience.  Go figure.

At the time of the announcement, a lot was said (myself included) about the ill effects that treating people like commodities would likely have on the company’s psyche, morale, spirit and ultimately, sales results.  As far as I’m concerned, the fact that Circuit City conveniently manages to overlook the part of their strategy that they justified as being prudent and necessary for the company down the road says more about the failure of that decision than anything else - especially now that we are "down the road" a  year and a half later.  So what is so hard about just saying that?

Posted by Donna Flagg on October 9, 2008 | Comments (2)